At Envoys Only Meet, Pakistan Sends High-Ranking Deputy Foreign Minister To Doha

This is the first statement issued by PenPath regarding the arrest of Mutiullah Wesa, the founder and director of the organisation.

Wesa had been arrested by the Taliban in late March in Kabul. The arrest of this education activist in Afghanistan has been met with widespread international and national reactions.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that the group’s intelligence agency arrested Wesa because of his "arbitrary activities and encouraging people to wage anti-government activities".

However, PenPath said in a statement that Wesa has no political affiliation or agenda in Afghanistan.

These meetings have been held close on the heels of the Doha meeting about Afghanistan which is being attended by the Secretary General of the United Nations and representatives of 25 countries and organisations.

Shaheen said that he has discussed the Doha meeting, the importance of engagement with the Taliban, and other regional relations and trade issues with the Chinese and British diplomats.

It has been reported that Taliban representatives have not been invited to the Doha meeting, however, the members of the political office of the Taliban in Doha will meet with the special representatives of different countries on the sidelines of this two-day meeting.

Maryam Rahmati, correspondent of Afghanistan International in Doha, said that the meeting will be held behind closed doors and the media will not be allowed to access the venue and participants.

In a statement, the United Nations said that the Doha meeting will discuss how to engage with the Taliban to reach a common understanding in the international community.

Over the last two days, Afghan citizens have held protests in Kabul and 15 cities around the world and asked the United Nations and the international community to avoid taking decisions in the Doha meeting that would lead to "recognition of the Taliban."

This will be the second visit of the Taliban’s foreign minister to Pakistan.

Pakistan is considered a traditional ally of the Taliban in Afghanistan. However, the continued deadly attacks by the Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has impacted the group’s ties with Islamabad over the recent months.

After Afghanistan’s takeover by the Taliban in August 2021, Islamabad expected the TTP to stop violence inside Pakistan due to the influence of the Afghan Taliban on the group.

The TTP and Pakistani delegations negotiated in the past 18 months with the mediation of the Taliban in Afghanistan, but recently Pakistan sees an upsurge in violence.

Islamabad has regularly said that the Afghan Taliban has not prevented the attacks of the Pakistani Taliban on Pakistani targets and that TTP has been stationed and sheltered in Afghanistan.

Diplomatic sources said that representatives of 25 countries and international organisations will attend the Doha meeting.

According to Maryam Rahmati, Afghanistan International’s correspondent in Doha, the UN-hosted meeting will be held behind closed doors, and journalists and photographers are not allowed to attend the meeting.

The United Nations has not provided much information to the media about the participants, the agenda, and even the venue of the meeting.

On Sunday, the UN spokesperson said in a statement, "On May 1 and 2, the Secretary General of the Organisation will host representatives of countries for Afghanistan to reach common views on key issues such as human rights, rights of women and girls, inclusive governance, and counterterrorism and anti-narcotics issues.”

The announcement added that the purpose of the Doha meeting is to build a consensus among the stakeholders regarding engagement with the Taliban.

The United Nations had previously rejected that there will not be any discussion regarding the official recognition of the Taliban in the Doha meeting. However, engagement with the Taliban seems to be the focus of the Doha meeting.

The Taliban has asked the participating countries that beyond engagement, they should discuss the official recognition of the Taliban.

The United Nations has not invited the Taliban to the Doha meeting.

Despite international criticism and condemnation in the Security Council, the Taliban has refused to lift the ban on the work of female staffers of the UN and other non-profit organisations in Afghanistan.

The commission asked regional and international stakeholders to avoid political and economic cooperation with the Taliban.

In a statement on Saturday, AIHRC called the recent resolution of the Security Council important. However, the rights group stressed that governments must consider human rights as a redline while maintaining their relations with the Taliban.

According to the commission, the Taliban regime uses citizens' human rights, especially women's rights, as a tool to pressurise the international community in order to gain recognition and receive humanitarian support.

The rights commission stated that the political demands and strategic goals of the powerful countries of the world and the region should not undermine human rights and especially women's rights in Afghanistan.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that condemned the Taliban's ban on the work of Afghan women.